By Jimoh Ibrahim
President Bola Tinubu, a liberalist who believes in collaboration and cooperation, has handed over his thesis of absolute peace to politicians in the Ondo state instead of the trending power currency in contemporary politics, which he says is not acceptable according to him. To President Tinubu, there will be beauty in the character if righteousness is in the heart. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, the nations will have order. When there is order in the nations, there will be peace. He insisted that his Peace thesis is not subject to any amendment.
President Tinubu spoke on the philosophy that nothing can bring peace but yourself. It is left to remember Aketi’s incredible contributions to lifting social development in all sectors, including infrastructural facilities, integrity in governance, economic development, and review of cultural heritage, and the lifting of traditional institutions (there was a time when everywhere was full of celebrations of development), the goods are almost gone.
They are not remembered any more, which is the case when realists want power! Aketi never thought that times like the present period would ever exist in our national history, and his voice on national issues is less to be remembered again. Should this be the case?
The realist can do anything to get into power and defend it at any cost, even if it results in anarchy. Alexander Wendt says Anarchy is what states make of it. Realist desire for power is a trajectory dated to the days of Thucydides, Morgenthau and Hobbes to structural (or neo-realism); it is always the case that politics oscillates around the acquisition and use of power. The realist explains realism in circumstances of power accumulation for self-defence in the state of statism.
The event in Ondo state, if allowed to mature, will signal the praxis of the realist attributes -recall the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (1479– 1516) expelled 170,000 Jews who refused their order to be ‘baptised.’ Henry VIII of England (1491–1547) imprisoned and executed those who would not sign his Act of Supremacy establishing the English monarch as head of the Church of England, including even his ‘good friend’ Thomas More Louis XIV of France (1638-1715)! The war in Ondo is in the early stages of hot water. We can only see a signal of imminent danger. It is not that the water is hot now. We can play with it for a moment!
What is more, President Tinube removed the fire. The Governor is the Governor. The government apparatus is working. Let’s stop pressing!
The Peloponnesian War is commonly seen as the first depiction of power politics. (Apologies to Thucydides). Yes, all Realists agree that states can only ensure their survival through self-help strategies that allow them to defend themselves and their interests against another state’s aggression. Is Ondo State at war with itself? It matters not to the realist in Ondo if the changes to power distributions are fundamental causes of war and system stability. It is unclear to Aketi that the game of power accumulation in Ondo was contemplated within the system for a long time (the political enemy did not start their plan today).
It is not a matter of collaboration or cooperation for democratic peace, as Aketi considered with nostalgia. The realist does not hold sympathy for you if you are sick of remembering your good works in those days when you exerted incredible energy for the service of humanity that regrettably make no sense to the student of power politics but may be a significant thesis for the moral thinking of liberal democratic peace scholars. It is not a matter of regret because there is no need to share interminable inquest over past mistakes, for some of them have lessons to teach for the future.
Liberalist Immanuel Kent, Perpetual Peace 1795-1804, John Locke 1687 -1693 took the desire to encourage collaboration and cooperation in ordering the engagement for peace on their dashboard. To them, democracy and democratic peace agreements are the only ways to ensure human security. This is where Aketi belongs, not for power accumulation for self-defence in the state of statism but, as explained by President Tinubu, democracy as a driver for the peace of humanity.
Yes, it was the liberalism engagement that celebrated the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. The notion of democracy driving the state is that liberals do not go to war with other liberals. Aketi must have been trapped by the incredible belief of the sellable democratic peace and the deep classical liberal thoughts in his innocent states, for it is no longer the case that liberals do not go to war with another liberal, for things do change!
The events in Ondo state will soon play out the thesis that liberalism is for absolute peace for the security of humanity. It is needless to engage in war for the peace of the state, and the realist that triggers war in Ondo state must be ready for collaboration and cooperation as President Tinubu Posited; in any event, difficult times don’t last long. Ondo state cannot afford to be at war with itself. Regrettably, the realists at the centre of power accumulation in the Ondo state are epiphenomena. We know their master, and it is in the democratic peace arena that we shall be engaging their power by democratic votes!
They may get no votes in the reality of a democratic election measurable to the power they need now. Otherwise, they should challenge Aketi in a new election and become the Governor!! President Tinubu took power even when the maximum ruler and the head of the realists in Daura kept petrol and currency from 200 million people! President Tinubu was sure of himself as a liberal democrat.
let us not forget that “politics is a power struggle.” Even in the most hospitable circumstances, the human condition is precarious because we are all unavoidably exposed. Yes, as Hobbes in ‘States of Nature,’ every human being is a potential threat because the struggle for survival in a world of limited resources is a ‘war of all against all,’ Hobbes thought that putting a government in place is an excellent way of guaranteeing security! In a world without a government to enforce order – a condition that Hobbes calls the state of nature – every human must be vigilant against threats to survival. A world without Government, he claims, forces humanity into a constant state of war because there is no way to trust in the excellent or peaceful intentions of others. We must always be on our guard lest we be attacked.
This condition – in which no ruler or judge can resolve disputes and establish security – is anarchy. In a lawless world, Hobbes argues that our lives must revolve around survival, leaving no time for agriculture, the arts, or sciences conditions of anarchy; Hobbes says, ‘the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.
As I replied to Hobbes in my PhD War thesis, it is also the case that the Hobbesian phenomenon underscores man’s aggressiveness in the state of nature that requires the leviathan’s intervention. In the face of the Buhari government, Boko Haram created a condition in the Northeast that makes the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”—a celebration of the leviathan’s failure.
Aketi case is not that of abuse of power as we saw in Darfur, where Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with war crimes against humanity. There is a Government in Ondo state. Aketi is not the Government but the Head of that Government. We have never had issues with the apparatus of Government and Governance (apologies to the sociologists). Aketi will be back, and this time shall pass!
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim PhD (Cantab) OFR, CFR, a Federal Republic of Nigeria Senator, holds a PhD in Business Management Science from Cambridge University—and another PhD in War from the War College University of Buckingham. He was also honoured by the Nigerian Government with the Commander Order of the Federal Republic CFR.
